I have always imagined what people would behave like if they traveled through a time machine fifty years ago and found their way in the modern connected world we see today. I can never even come to imagine what people from a hundred years ago might think but fifty years ago isn’t that long ago, right?
There are many people here who were alive fifty years ago like your grandparents, and they seem to be doing okay with technology even though they tend to get confused with some things. They are okay with it because they have seen the transitional period and since technology takes one step at a time, they were part of its evolution. But, a man from fifty years back just finding himself in the middle of our home will definitely be startled after seeing the huge 3-D LED TVs, smartphones, Tablet PCs, high-quality graphics video games and even subtle things like the automatic washing machines and newer car models. All of this will probably fall on him like a bomb and the reaction would be simply priceless. Back in his days, personal computers were only owned by bigwig companies and millionaire individuals. The cars were long, heavy and slow while transistor radios were still used and NASA had just got onto the moon with a computer system slower than a TV control panel we use nowadays.
We haven’t had any visitors in the form of time travel. Darn it! But, we do have people who have remained away from the technological advancement and suddenly introduced to this whole wide world. I am talking about maximum detention prisons, unadvanced parts of the world like Africa and some castaways. Otis Johnson is one of these guys that couldn’t believe how much the world has changed after he was released following incarceration since 1975 on account of murder charges.
Normally people get to be current with the outside world, but Johnson was mostly cut off since 1998 when his remaining family stopped seeing him altogether. Since he had the maximum sentence, his facility was only updated a few times and he literally had no idea of the free world. This is what he had to say when he was finally released:
Hard to put all that into words, huh? I would still like to hear from a time traveler one day though! He might offer some explanation even more bizarre! Till then, listen to the full interview below.